A Snapshot of Caitlyn

—- had a picture here proving Caitlyn is potty-trained, but I later made the photo private—-

Need I say more? 🙂

– We went cold turkey on diapers a month ago and there was a rainstorm outside of her window the first night. She flooded the bed four times, but Scott and I kept the faith.

The first week, my laundry pile every day looked like this:

– She hasn’t had an accident of any kind in weeks and she’s so darn independent that she’s taking herself to the potty consistently and on her own. It’s fabulous. She even remembers to flush every time.

– Clearly she also puts on her own underwear afterwards (look closely at the first picture).

– She only puts on her own underwear when absolutely necessary, however. She will happily streak around the house without a stitch of clothing on and explain “I had to go potty” when I question her. One potty trip is the passport to 15 minutes of freedom if she times it to coincide with when I’m nursing her brother. Many times a day, I have to catch her, locate the oft-missing underwear and pants and instruct her patiently in the importance of clothing (while keeping a straight face if at all possible).

Confession: She even knows to “go hide” when someone knocks on the front door if she’s not wearing pants at the time because it seems to happen that way more often than not.

– Note that she is still a wild card so having her head off to the bathroom by herself is a mixed blessing. In fact, after never having shown any inclination to put things in the toilet before, a few days ago she returned from a bathroom trip, came over to where I was nursing Daniel* and asked “Where is the toothbrush?”.

I can’t articulate why, but her tone was such that I was instantly on my guard. Not knowing even to which toothbrush she was referring, I countered cautiously, “Where IS the toothbrush, Caitlyn?”

“Down the potty!” she announced, somewhat concerned.

It was only after much investigation that we theorized she had flushed the head of Scott’s sonicare toothbrush completely down the toilet.

The following day, that theory was confirmed when our bathroom nearly flooded.

– In case you haven’t had the experience of potty-training a child before, let me be clear here: Successfully leaving diapers behind totally trumps a clogged toilet. 🙂

*I was actually nursing Daniel while also talking to Scott on the phone. He calls every day from work to check up on us and without fail, the craziest part of my day happens while I’m on the phone. On this day, he patiently waited while I grilled Caitlyn for details, did a visual inspection on the toilet, and burped Daniel before resuming our conversation.